Scotland Home of Long Distance Champions Pt6

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Scotland the home of the long distance champions. (Part 6)

Billy Jamieson of Annan.

This week we are going to Scotland, the land of the long distance doos to visit the premier long distance loft of Billy Jamieson of Annan. Bill says he is only interested in SNFC Channel racing from 410 miles through to Niort 600 miles, and since starting upon his own at his present address in 1982 has been highly successful. The name Jamieson of Annan has been famous in Scottish long distance pigeon racing for many years as his father, John, and his uncle Matt were the brilliant Jamieson Brothers. Bill entered the sport in 1959 as partner to his father and flew as Jamieson & Son, with outstanding success, winning their SNFC section eight times and 1st open Nantes SNFC (543 miles). When starting on his own in 1982 six pigeons came from the old loft and of these two became significant in his present day set-up, being mealy cock '9096' and the grizzle cock. '09299'. These two cocks were sire and grand-sire to many outstanding national racers and their bloodlines were mostly Kirkpatrick/Sion and Proctor Smith. Bill introduced birds from Eric Fox of Bakewell in 1985 and these proved to be an excellent cross, in particular a bad chequer hen bred in 1985. Another important pigeon brought in when forming his present loft of long distance pigeons was a red chequer cock bred by his uncle Matt, direct from his 1986 1st section Nantes SNFC winner. A blue chequer cock that Bill purchased at a local clearance sale bred winners for him up to when he was 13 years of age.

Some of the SNFC trophies won by Billy are: Cameron Trophy – 2nd open Rennes in 1971, the Tom Buck Trophy in 1991 and again in 1994 for Best Average Rennes and Sartilly Nationals, South Section Average Trophy in 1995 and was Scotland's Own Fancier of the Year in 1991. On my visit to the Annan loft Billy made us very welcome and showed us some of his best racers, including a handsome red cheq cock that had been over the English Channel four times and had scored in the SNFC four times. This game pigeon raced best to ten day old eggs and had won in 1993: 75th open Rennes SNFC; 1994: 31st open Rennes SNFC; 1995: 10th open Niort (600 miles) SNFC; 1996: 18th open Niort SNFC a brilliant racer. Bill says his good friends Ray & Marion Seaton of Annan have bred some good pigeons for him including blue chequer hen '10181', winner of 9th sect, 14th open Rennes SNFC; 2nd sect, 2nd open Rennes SNFC. Blue hen '10155' winner of 96th open Rennes, 84th open Rennes SNFC, also bred a cock to win 10th open Sartilly SNFC. Two wonderful blue pied hens bred by Tom Gilbertson of Carlisle have bred some excellent long distance racers for the Jamieson loft including: 18th open Rennes SNFC; 67th open Sartilly SNFC; 8th open SNFC and 161st open Rennes SNFC.

Billy races on the natural system with Channel National racing in mind and keeps 28 pairs including stock birds. The yearlings are paired up in the middle of February and they race up to 300 miles, with the old bird racers being paired up a month later. The birds are fed on a first-class mixture of beans, peas and maize and Bill says he is very proud that he has won 47 open positions in the SNFC since starting on his own in 1983. His very smart loft is 24ft long, with clear plastic sheets inserted in the roof to let in extra light. Trapping is through drop holes off a land board which runs the full length of the loft. He keeps about 12 stock birds, but some of these are paired to the best racers, to give them a safe mate for racing. Billy keeps about 36 young birds each season and these are raced natural to the perch. They are given regular training tosses from 45 miles, but Bill maintains he is not a great lover of young bird racing. The youngsters are' never hammered as they are the future of this loft, racing depends on the weather and if racing is too hard, the young bird team will be stopped in mid-programme. Bill's father, John, knew the late great John Kirkpatrick and some excellent birds were bred down from the 'master's' bloodlines. He says when he was a kid he was raised in the pigeon loft, but this has stood him in good stead all his pigeon racing career. Bill is con-vinced that success is mainly brought about by friendship, when fanciers exchange birds. He likes his birds to be medium in size, with the breeding hens being a little bit bigger, although he has known plenty good long distance racers to be small. He maintains that feeding is an art and he is not bothered if his mixture is polished or not, as long as it is sound. He feeds the birds well and about two weeks before the first National race peanuts are added to the birds' feeding. Condition seed is not given as this is not favoured at the Jamieson loft, although a little linseed is given with the moulting mixture. The youngsters are weaned on maple peas, going over to the main mixture as they start to fly. The birds are flagged around the loft for exercise and are given a lot of training to get them fit for the National events. Most of the training is from Appleby (45 miles) and the old birds usually get three or four races from about 100 miles before the first National races. Billy only sends a small team to the SNFC races, with normally about four birds being sent to the longest race from Nantes or Niort. Although he doesn't send his yearlings past the 300 miles stage, he expects all his old bird racers to have a National position by the time they are three years old, or they are got rid of.

He says his birds have a quick natural recovery rate after a hard race and are not given any special treatment to aid their recovery, just allowed to rest. He is not into the eye sign method, although he never pairs together birds with the same eyes and when looking at the wing, he likes to see a good space between the last three flights. When selecting breeders Bill looks at the bird's throat and likes to see a nice pink throat, with an open slit in the roof of the mouth. Bill doesn't favour the closed in type loft and maintains good ventilation in the loft is vital to maintain good health in the birds and' one third of the front of his garden loft is open. Bill's loft has quality in great depth, with many premier prize winning pigeons living in it. Some of the best were: grizzle hen '9214' winner of 3rd open Sartilly SNFC; 206th open Sartilly SNFC. Grizzle cock '9220' winner of 167th open Sartilly SNFC; 27th open Sartilly SNFC; 114th open Sartilly SNFC; 27th open Nantes SNFC and The Pied Hen, 168th open Sartilly SNFC; 59th open Sartilly SNFC; 9th open Solway Federation Sartilly; 10th open Rennes SNFC. Brilliant pigeons and a great fancier!

Gunn & Cherrie of Roslin.

Although most of the lofts that I've visited in Scotland have raced on the natural, one that wasn't was Gunn & Cherrie of Roslin, as they race the roundabout system with outstanding success. Tom & David formed their partnership 20 years ago and although they like long distance national racing, they went round about ten seasons ago. Tom has been in the sport 45 years and first became interested when he visited a local fancier's loft as a five year old.

Gunn & Cherrie have won countless positions in their Federation and S.N.F.C, but said their best performance was winning 1st open Rennes (540 miles) S.N.F.C. Tom said it was a great day to win the National, it was a hard race being in a heat wave and a light head wind. The 1997 season saw them record 5th, 6th and 7th open Sartilly S.N.F.C. and this was another hard day for the 496 mile race. The 5th open Sartilly pigeon was a handsome blue cheq cock bred down from Preece Brothers’ of South Wales, ‘Iron Man’ bloodlines. This game cock had previously won as a young bird.

The race team is paired up early in February and their roundabout system is very basic, racing cocks and hens in the same races. They are fed widowhood mixture, being 'broken' down in the first part of the week and are never trained after the first race. Birds rear one pair of youngsters before being split three weeks before the first race. They like to compete in all races at any distance, but maintain roundabout is an excellent system for long distance racing. The main old bird racing loft is 30ft long with three sections, one of which is a special trapping section with open doors and has grille floors for easy cleaning. The cocks stay in the nest box section and the hens live on 'V' perches. The family kept is based around the 1st. open Rennes winner and a good cross is brought in from time to time. Strains mean nothing to them, all new introductions must be from the very best winning lines. The eight pairs of stock birds are housed in a small stock loft with a wire flight, and are fed mostly on beans. They are paired up at the same time as the race team in February, so their eggs can be floated under the racers.

Their 45 young birds are raced right through to 215 miles, with half the team being stopped after four races. The young hens and cocks are housed separately in the racing season, and are put together on marking day to wind them up. They are given lots of training tosses from 15 miles before the first race. On our visit to the Rosin loft we handled most of their premier racers, including the blue hen ‘Duchess’, and she had scored in several national races. She is a granddaughter of the 1st open Rennes winner and bred down from top Welsh bloodlines. Full article to appear in the BHW soon. (November 2022)